Rock star Reg Presley, lead singer of the Troggs, has died following a battle with lung cancer.
The 71-year-old, best known for the 1960s hit Wild Thing, died at his home in Andover, Hampshire, surrounded by his friends and family, close friend and music publicist Keith Altham said.
He announced the death of his "dear old pal" on his Facebook page, adding that the singer had recently suffered a number of strokes.
He said: "He was one very real person in a sometimes very unreal world. Our thoughts are with his wife, Brenda, and the family and those legion of fans who loved his music and his band. I will miss him hugely."
Presley founded The Troggs in the 1960s and the band became famous with Wild Thing, and later With A Girl Like You and I Can't Control Myself.
His career received a boost in the mid-1990s when first REM and then Wet Wet Wet covered their 1967 hit Love Is All Around.
Presley, who was born in Andover, only stopped touring in 2012 after being diagnosed with lung cancer.
In his later years, the singer-songwriter was known for his interest in the paranormal, including crop circles and UFOs.
He used his royalties from the cover of Love Is All Around to fund research into crop circles and outlined his findings in the book Wild Things They Don't Tell Us, published in October 2002.
Presley's daughter, Karen, confirmed her father's death to music website WENN.
She told the website: "He passed away peacefully at home and myself, my brother and our mother were with him. We're absolutely heartbroken."
Presley announced to fans that he was suffering from lung cancer in January last year after being taken ill at a gig in Germany.
He said: "As you all know, I was taken ill whilst doing a gig in Germany in December. During my stay in hospital, tests showed that in fact I have lung cancer. I am receiving chemotherapy treatment and at the moment not feeling too bad.
"However I've had to call time on The Troggs and retire. I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for the cards and calls and for your love, loyalty and support over the years."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article